Radius of gyration

Radius of gyration or gyradius refer to the distribution of the components of an object around an axis. In terms of mass moment of inertia, it is the perpendicular distance from the axis of rotation to a point mass (of mass, m) that gives an equivalent inertia to the original object(s) (of mass, m). The nature of the object does not affect the concept, which applies equally to a surface, a bulk mass, or an ensemble of points.

The gyration radius is useful in estimating the stiffness of a column. If the principal moments of the two-dimensional gyration tensor are not equal, the column will tend to buckle around the axis with the smaller principal moment. For example, a column with an elliptical cross-section will tend to buckle in the direction of the smaller semiaxis.

It also can be referred to as the radial distance from a given axis at which the mass of a body could be concentrated without altering the rotational inertia of the body about that axis.

In engineering, where people deal with continuous bodies of matter, the radius of gyration is usually calculated as an integral.

In polymer physics, the radius of gyration is used to describe the dimensions of a polymerchain. The radius of gyration of a particular molecule at a given time is defined as:

where is the mean position of the monomers. As detailed below, the radius of gyration is also proportional to the root mean square distance between the monomers:

As a third method, the radius of gyration can also be computed by summing the principal moments of the gyration tensor.

Since the chain conformations of a polymer sample are quasi infinite in number and constantly change over time, the "radius of gyration" discussed in polymer physics must usually be understood as a mean over all polymer molecules of the sample and over time. That is, the radius of gyration which is measured as an average over time or ensemble: